Our Impact

Researcher donning personal protective equipment holds small black mouse
Sunday, February 5, 2017 New Mouse Model Leads to a Surprising Discovery that Sheds Light on Metaplastic Breast Cancer
For more than a decade, Celina Kleer, M.D., Harold A. Oberman Collegiate Professor of Pathology and director of the Breast Pathology Program at the U-M Cancer Center, has been studying how a poorly understood protein called CCN6 affects breast cancer. To learn more about its role in breast cancer development, Kleer's lab designed a special mouse model that deleted CCN6 from the mammary gland in mice, which allowed the team to study effects specific to the loss of the protein. The results, recently published in Oncogene, have revealed a key genetic driver for a rare form of metaplastic breast cancer.
Rats being studied in laboratory
Monday, December 12, 2016 U-M Researchers Share Rat Model with Scholars Worldwide
It's a pretty obvious connection - those who exercise more often are less susceptible to disease. But how exactly does a man’s aerobic capacity affect his chances of suffering a spontaneous heart attack? And how does a woman’s running ability impact her brain function? U-M researchers have developed a unique rat model that provides scientists worldwide with a significant resource to study how exercise endurance capacity correlates with disease risks.
White rat being held by laboratory animal technician
Monday, December 12, 2016 Genetic Markers That Influence Addiction Discovered in Rat Study
Who gets hooked on drugs and who stays clean? New research, conducted in rats, identifies genetic markers that influence addiction.
Images of an MRI brain scan
Monday, December 12, 2016 Novel Mouse Model Offers Hope for Fighting Children's Brain Tumors
Children with brain tumors have had limited treatment options in the past compared with adults. A novel research model, developed in mice at U-M, will make it easier and faster to test new treatments.
Dr. Robert Bartlett holds ECMO medical device
Friday, December 9, 2016 Life-Saving ECMO Device Made Possible By Sheep Research
It was thought to be strange and risky in the 1970s, but research with sheep paved the way to a new machine that gave critically-ill patients with failing hearts and lungs a chance for their organs to rest and repair themselves. To date: 50,000 patients treated; more than 2,000 of them right here at U-M, and thousands of lives saved.
Pink zebrafish in fish tank
Friday, December 9, 2016 Regenerative Properties of Zebrafish Used for Treating Blinding Eye Diseases
U-M researchers are using the regenerative properties of zebrafish to develop novel strategies for treating blinding eye diseases.
illustration showing human pancreas
Friday, December 9, 2016 Mouse Study Shines a Light on Pancreatic Insulin
Scientists and doctors have long wanted to know how much insulin a person has, but haven't been able to know the exact amount without physically removing the pancreas from a deceased patient for review. But a new study in the journal Diabetes details how a group of researchers was finally able to visualize stored insulin in the pancreas of a living creature -- in this case, a mouse.
Small black mouse walks on reflective surface under laboratory safety hood
Friday, December 9, 2016 Study Done in Mice Could Help Limit Metastatic Breast Cancer
A small device implanted under the skin can improve breast cancer survival by catching cancer cells, slowing the development of metastatic tumors in other organs and allowing time to intervene with surgery or other therapies. The study, done in mice, expands on earlier research from the same team of U-M researchers that showed that the implantable scaffold device effectively captures metastatic cancer cells.
Researcher donning personal protective equipment holds white rat in animal care and use facility
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 50 Years of Caring for U-M's Lab Animals
"We love animals, and we love people, and that's why we do the job we do."
Researcher holding mouse
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 New Rodent Study Could Lead to Changes in ICU Care for Critically Ill Patients
Since the 1950s, animal studies have shown that pretreatment of the gut with antibiotics before trauma or other critical illness can protect against lung injury and death. As part of their recently published findings in Nature Microbiology, U-M researchers have concluded that critical illness involving the lungs has more to do with disruptions to the body's natural population of microbes, or microbiome, than previously thought.

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